Please feel free to use this on-line dictionary for educational purposes only and be aware that it
does not yet incorporate all functionality of its Microsoft Access-based source, Digital Heiltsuk-English
Dictionary. Search functionality in particular will be updated in future releases.

For any questions or concerns, please contact UBC First Nations and Endangered Languages Chair
Mark Turin

Who are we?

...More to come...

Pam Brown | Anthropologist & Curator

Pam Brown is of Heiltsuk and Kitasoo ancestry. She is an anthropologist and curator,
Pacific Northwest at the
UBC Museum of Anthropology. Her expertise includes material culture, collaborative
research, community exhibitions and Aboriginal internships.

Pam’s priority is to make museum resources more accessible to Aboriginal artists, Elders,
youth, communities and organizations. She has been privileged to direct the Native
Youth Program since 1994 and is currently a part of the Híɫzaqv Language Mobilization
Partnership team at UBC working with the Heiltsuk Cultural and Education Centre.

My Name is Ǧvu̓í (Raven). My english name is Rory Housty and I am Haíɫzaqv. I am also
a proud N̓úlawitx̌v. I am very proud to be Haíɫzaqv. My Crest is Raven. I live
in Wágḷísla also known as Bella Bella, BC. I am currently working at the Heiltsuk
College as a Haíɫzaqv Language Trainee. I am currently learning and teaching our
language to my fellow community members. I am ever so grateful to my elders for all
that they have taught me.

Gerry Lawson | Coordinator, Oral History and Language Lab

Gerry Lawson is a proud member of the Heiltsuk First Nation and manages the Oral History
and Language Lab at the
UBC Museum of Anthropology. With over 15 years in the field of Information Management
and Heritage Digitization, he works to develop practical, scalable resources for
Indigenous cultural heritage preservation, and to decolonize information practices.

Lisa Nathan | Information & Design Researcher

Lisa Nathan is a settler of German-Jewish heritage living and working on Musqueam’s traditional,
ancestral and unceded territory. She is Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the
First Nations Curriculum Concentration at the
School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, University of British
Columbia (the iSchool @ UBC).

Lisa runs the Sustaining Information Practices Studio and serves on the steering committee
for the
Indigitization Project. You can learn more about Lisa’s work
here.

Aidan Pine | Lead Web & Mobile Developer

Aidan Pine is a settler of European ancestry born in Victoria, BC. Aidan is interested
in language revitalization because of its inherently multidisplinary nature and because
of the social justice component at the centre of the work. Aidan graduated with an
Honors degree in Linguistics and a minor in First Nations Languages from the University
of British Columbia. Aidan is also a full-stack web and mobile developer and is interested
in the ways that technology can support community-led language revitalization initiatives.

Aidan is completely honoured and thrilled to be working with such a dynamic team and
hopes to continue improving the Online Híɫzaqv Dictionary for years to come.

Language is
power!

Mark Turin | Anthropologist & Linguist

Mark is an Italo-Dutch anthropologist and linguist who moved to Vancouver in 2014 to
serve as Chair of the First Nations and Endangered Languages Program, Acting Co-Director
of the University’s new Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies and Associate Professor
of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia.

Mark is very privileged to have had the opportunity to work in collaborative partnership
with members of the Thangmi-speaking communities of eastern Nepal and Darjeeling
district in India since 1996, and since 2014 with members of the Heiltsuk First Nation
through a Híɫzaqv Language Mobilization Partnership in which UBC is a member. You
can learn more about his work by visiting his
website or following him on Twitter
@markturin.